Zero Waste - the third generation resource theory

Ask yourself, when was the last time you heard an environmental group, expert or advisor provide you with a concrete proposal for handling chemicals that was not simply fear mongering, using the word "toxic" to imply that all chemicals should just be avoided or banned or worse. They are even likely to employ that terrible oxymoron "dispose of properly"

   Friends, Zero Waste was conceived in the cradle of chemical reuse. Zero Waste as used here is not just some pastiche of added on mitigations of the worst effects of garbage generation. It is a mature, fully formed theory of reuse that applies to every product used by man - no exceptions. That doesn't mean that ZW has simplistic answers for every question you might ask. Because it is based on a set of principles, which tell us how to approach any situation in which an item is no longer desired by its current owner, it can tell you what direction to take. The specifics will vary and may even be difficult to puzzle out but the approach is clear.

    When faced with a chemical product that is excess to the needs or wants of its owner, ZW does not throw up its hands and demand a ban or an incinerator or simply demand some unknown and unspecified government regulation (which does nothing to solve the current problem). ZW asks those questions that have led to opening up reuse possibilities in the past. ZW asks what the impediments to reuse actually are. Frequently they are bureaucratic, political and attitutdinal, expressing cultural fear and mistrust that block any positive response. Once you ask yourself how reuse could be achieved, the ideas start flowing. For example, you don't expect anything useful to come out of frightened utterances by people who distrust all chemicals. You turn to industrial chemists who actually know how chemicals are used in industry. You ask if the chemical was needlessly contaminated to learn if such contamination can be avoided in the future. You ask how it can be purified or its components (if any)  separated. You inquire how the chemical(s) can be converted into other products that are more easily reused. And in general, to come up with many specific answers to these questions, you demand the creation of a scientific research insititute targeted at providing answers to these question across the board.

    There are more recommendations that can be made but this gives the flavor. If you are a reflective person, you may be taking note that the recycling community and the recycling groups have never had anything positive to offer in the face of unwanted chemicals, while the problem  yields easily to a Zero Waste analysis. That is one example of the more advanced nature of Zero Waste analysis.

Paul Palmer